Do you ever notice how often we as Christians refer to our
relationship with Christ as our spiritual
walk with the Lord? I don’t think
there is anything really wrong about this phrase, especially as it suggests an
intimate friendship with my savior, and I have often used the term when
describing my own experience. However, in the past year or so, I have come to
realize that my life, while learning to abide in Christ, has been something
quite a bit more akin to an ADVENTURE
than a walk.
As a youth,
my path was relatively set out in front of me. In school, each year I progressed
to the next grade. I have lived in the same town all my life, every Sunday I went
to church with my family, and most of my friends I had known since grade
school. When it came time to graduate from high school, the question was never if I was going to college- it was where I was going to college. I think it
was at this point that I first encountered a fork in my road, because I believe
that whichever college I would have chosen, God still would have met with me
there.
You see, I
don’t think the most important aspect of my decision was where I was going, but
rather, whether or not I would choose to continue to follow Christ without my
family and support network directly surrounding me. I eventually decided on Miami
University, but it was my decision
to pursue Christ by involving myself in a church and bible study that had the
greatest effect on my life. While I was challenged spiritually and mentally, I
can look back and see that my experience was one of great blessing and growth.
Now, after
four and a half years of college, I’m again looking out at my future, and I
can’t see very many steps ahead of me. I’m leaving for India
soon for a real-life adventure, but beyond that, I have yet to see where I will
go. I can’t see where there will be forks in the road, and I can’t see where
obstacles will be waiting. It’s a scary place, this edge of my future, but it’s
the element of the unknown that has been teaching me to trust God and lean on
His wisdom and grace. I can look back at my life up until this point and see
that God has never led me astray. In fact, I have come to realize that God
dreams for me dreams bigger than anything I could imagine for myself. I can’t
think of a better companion for this road of life! In this past year, I’ve been
learning to open my ears and heart to where God may be calling me and things He
wants to teach me. God may call me in any million different directions, but
when I choose to follow, I believe the path before me will be nothing short of
an ADVENTURE!
